Church of the Holy Family (Grand Blanc, Michigan) - interior, stained glass, All Saints' Day, All Souls' Day, Holy Rosary, Christ the King (Nheyob/Wikimedia Commons)

As Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger once said so well, one major difference
between Protestants and Catholics is that Catholics pray for the dead:

"My view is that if Purgatory did not exist, we should have to invent it." Why?

"Because
few things are as immediate, as human
and as widespreadat all times and in all culturesas prayer for one"s
own departed dear ones." Calvin, the Reformer of Geneva, had a woman
whipped
because she was discovered praying at the grave of herson and hence was
guilty, according to Calvin, of superstition". "In theory, the
Reformation
refuses to accept Purgatory, and consequently it also rejects prayer for
the departed. In fact German Lutherans at least have returned to it in
practice and have found considerable theological justification for it.
Praying for one's departed loved ones is a far too immediate urge to be
suppressed; it is a most beautiful manifestation of solidarity, love and
assistance, reaching beyond the barrier of death. The happiness or
unhappiness of a person dear to me, who has now crossed to the other
shore, depends in part on whether I remember or forget him; he does not
stop
needing my love." [1]

Catholics are not the only ones who pray for the dead. The custom is also a Jewish one, and Catholics traditionally
drew upon the following text from the Jewish Scriptures, in addition to some New Testament passages, to justify their belief:

Then
Judas
assembled his army and went to the city of Adulam. As the seventh day
was coming on, they purified themselves according to the custom, and
they kept
the sabbath there. On the next day, as by that time it had become
necessary, Judas and his men went to take up the bodies of the fallen
and to bring
them back to lie with their kinsmen in the sepulchres of their fathers.
Then under the tunic of every one of the dead they found sacred tokens
of the
idols of Jamnia, which the law forbids the Jews to wear. And it became
clear to all that this was why these men had fallen. So they all blessed
the
ways of the Lord, the righteous Judge, who reveals the things that are
hidden; and they turned to prayer, beseeching that the sin which had
been
committed might be wholly blotted out. And the noble Judas exhorted the
people to keep themselves free from sin, for they had seen with their
own eyes
what had happened because of the sin of those who had fallen. He also
took up a collection, man by man, to the amount of two thousand drachmas
of
silver, and sent it to Jerusalem to provide for a sin offering. In doing
this he acted very well and honourably, taking account of the
resurrection.
For if he were not expecting that those who had fallen would rise again,
it would have been superfluous and foolish to pray for the dead. But if
he
was looking to the splendid reward that is laid up for those who fall
asleep in godliness, it was a holy and pious thought. Therefore he made
atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin. [2]

Besides the Jews, many ancient peoples also prayed for the
deceased. Some societies, such as that of ancient Egypt, were actually
"funereal" and built around the practice. [3] The urge to do so is deep
in the
human spirit which rebels against the concept of annihilation after
death. Although there is some evidence for a Christian liturgical feast
akin to
our All Souls Day as early as the fourth century, the Church was slow to
introduce such a festival because of the persistence, in Europe, of
more
ancient pagan rituals for the dead. In fact, the Protestant reaction to
praying for the dead may be based more on these survivals and a deformed
piety
from pre-Christian times than on the true Catholic doctrine as expressed
by either the Western or the Eastern Church. The doctrine of purgatory,
rightly understood as praying for the dead, should never give offense to
anyone who professes faith in Christ.

When we discuss the Feast
of All Souls,
we look at a liturgical commemoration which pre-dated doctrinal
formulation itself, since the Church often clarifies only that which is
being
undermined or threatened. The first clear documentation for this
celebration comes from Isidore of Seville (d. 636; the last of the great
Western
Church Fathers) whose monastic rule includes a liturgy for all the dead
on the day after Pentecost. [4] St. Odilo (962-1049 AD) was the abbot of
Cluny
in France who set the date for the liturgical commemoration of the
departed faithful on November 2.

Before that, other dates had
been seen around the
Christian world, and the Armenians still use Easter Monday for this
purpose. He issued a decree that all the monasteries of the congregation
of Cluny
were annually to keep this feast. On November 1 the bell was to be
tolled and afterward the Office of the Dead was to be recited in common,
and on the
next day all the priests would celebrate Mass for the repose of the
souls in purgatory. The observance of the Benedictines of Cluny was soon
adopted
by other Benedictines and by the Carthusians who were reformed
Benedictines. Pope Sylvester in 1003 AD approved and recommended the
practice.
Eventually the parish clergy introduced this liturgical observance, and
from the eleventh to the fourteenth century it spread in France,
Germany,
England, and Spain.

Finally, in the fourteenth century, Rome
placed the day of the commemoration of all the faithful departed in the
official
books of the Western or Latin Church. November 2 was chosen in order
that the memory of all the holy spirits, both of the saints in heaven
and of the
souls in purgatory, should be celebrated in two successive days. In this
way the Catholic belief in the Communion of Saints would be expressed.
Since
for centuries the Feast of All the Saints had already been celebrated on
November first, the memory of the departed souls in purgatory was
placed on
the following day. All Saints Day goes back to the fourth century, but
was finally fixed on November 1 by Pope Gregory IV in 835 AD. The two
feasts
bind the saints-to-be with the almost-saints and the already-saints
before the resurrection from the dead.

Incidentally, the
practice of priests
celebrating three Masses on this day is of somewhat recent origin, and
dates back only to ca. 1500 AD with the Dominicans of Valencia. Pope
Benedict
XIV extended it to the whole of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America in
1748 AD. Pope Benedict XV in 1915 AD granted the "three Masses
privilege" to the
universal Church. [5]

The doctrine of
Purgatory, upon which
the liturgy of All Souls rests, is formulated in canons promulgated by
the Councils of Florence (1439 AD) and Trent (1545-1563 AD). The truth
of the
doctrine existed before its clarification, of course, and only
historical necessities motivated both Florence and Trent to pronounce
when they did.
Acceptance of this doctrine still remains a required belief of Catholic
faith.

What about "indulgences"? Indulgences from the treasury of
grace in the
Church are applied to the departed on All Souls Day, as well as on other
days, according to the norms of ecclesiastical law. The faithful make
use of
their intercessory role in prayer to ask the Lord"s mercy upon those who
have died. Essentially, the practice urges the faithful to take
responsibility. This is the opinion of Michael Morrissey:

Against
the common juridical and commercial view, the teaching essentially
attempts to induce the faithful to show responsibility toward the dead
and the communion of saints. Since the Church has taught that death is
not the
end of life, then neither is it the end of our relationship with loved
ones who have died, who along with the saints make up the Body of Christ
in the
"Church Triumphant."

The diminishing theological interest in
indulgences today is due to an increased emphasis on the sacraments, the
prayer life of Catholics, and an active engagement in the world as
constitutive of the spiritual life. More soberly, perhaps, it is due to
an
individualistic attitude endemic in modern culture that makes it harder
to feel responsibility for, let alone solidarity with, dead relatives
and
friends. [7]

As with everything Christian, then, All Souls
Day has to do with the mystery of charity, that divine love overcomes
everything, even death. Bonds of love uniting us creatures, living and
dead, and the Lord who is resurrected, are celebrated both on All Saints
Day
and on All Souls Day each year.

All who have been baptized into
Christ and have chosen him will continue to live in Him. The grave does
not
impede progress toward a closer union with Him. It is only
this degree of closeness to Him which we
consider when we celebrate All Saints one day, and All Souls the next.
Purgatory is a great blessing because it shows those who love God how
they
failed in love, and heals their ensuing shame. Most of us have neither
fulfilled the commandments nor failed to fulfill them. Our very
mediocrity
shames us. Purgatory fills in the void. We learn finally what to fulfill
all of them means. Most of us neither hate nor fail completely in love.
Purgatory teaches us what radical love means, when God remakes our
failure to love in this world into the perfection of love in the next.

As
the
sacraments on earth provide us with a process of transformation into
Christ, so Purgatory continues that process until the likeness to Him is
completed. It is all grace. Actively praying for the dead is that "holy
mitzvah" or act of charity on our part which hastens that process. The
Church
encourages it and does it with special consciousness and in unison on
All Souls Day, even though it is always and everywhere salutary to pray
for the
dead.

ENDNOTES:

[1] See Joseph Cardinal
Ratzinger, The Ratzinger Report: An Exclusive Interview on the State
of the Church, with Vittorio Messori (San Francisco: Ignatius
Press, 1985) 146-147. Michael P. Morrissey says on the point: "The
Protestant
Reformers rejected the doctrine of purgatory, based on the teaching that
salvation is by faith through grace alone, unaffected by intercessory
prayers
for the dead." See his "Afterlife" in The Dictionary of Catholic Spirituality, ed. Michael Downey
(Collegeville: Michael Glazier/Liturgical Press, 1993) 28.

[2]
Maccabees 12:38-46. From The Holy Bible,
Revised Standard Version, Containing the Old and New Testaments.
Catholic Edition. (London: The Catholic Truth Society, 1966) 988-989.
Neil J.
McEleney, CSP, adds: "These verses contain clear reference to belief in
the resurrection of the just...a belief which the author attributes to
Judas
...although Judas may have wanted simply to ward off punishment from the
living, lest they be found guilty by association with the fallen
sinners....
The author believes that those who died piously will rise again...and
who can die more piously than in a battle for God"s law? ...Thus, he
says, Judas
prayed that these men might be delivered from their sin, for which God
was angry with them a little while.... The author, then, does not share
the
view expressed in 1 Enoch 22:12-13 that sinned- against sinners are kept
in a division of Sheol from which they do not rise, although they are
free of
the suffering inflicted on other sinners. Instead, he sees Judas"s
action as evidence that those who die piously can be delivered from
unexpiated sins
that impede their attainment of a joyful resurrection. This doctrine,
thus vaguely formulated, contains the essence of what would become (with
further
precisions) the Christian theologian's teaching on purgatory." See The New Jerome Biblical
Commentary, ed. Raymond E. Brown, SS, etal., art. 26, "1-2 Maccabees" (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1990) 446. Gehinnom in Jewish writings is more appropriately understood as a purgatory than a final destination of
damnation.

[3] Spanish-speaking Catholics today popularly refer
to All Souls Day as "El Día de los Muertos", a relic of the past when
the pre-
Christian Indians had a "Day of the Dead"; liturgically, the day is
referred to as "El Día de las Animas". Germans call their Sunday of the
Dead
"Totensonntag". The French Jesuit missionaries in New France in the
seventeenth century easily explained All Souls Day by comparing it to
the the
local Indian "Day of the Dead". The Jesuit Relations are
replete with examples of how
conscious were the people of their duties toward their dead. Ancestor
worship was also well known in China and elsewhere in Asia, and
missionaries
there in times gone by perhaps had it easier explaining All Souls Day to
them, and Christianizing the concept, than they would have to us in the
Western world as the twentieth century draws to a close.

[5] "Three Masses were formerly allowed to be celebrated by
each priest, but one intention was stipulated for all the Poor Souls and
another for
the Pope"s intention. This permission was granted by Benedict XV during
the World War of 1914-1918 because of the great slaughter of that war,
and
because, since the time of the Reformation and the confiscation of
church property, obligations for anniversary Masses which had come as
gifts and
legacies were almost impossible to continue in the intended manner. Some
canonists believe Canon 905 of the New Code has abolished this
practice.
However, the Sacramentary, printed prior to the Code, provides three separate Masses for this date." See
Jovian P. Lang, OFM, Dictionary of the Liturgy (New York: Catholic Book Publishing Company, 1989)
21. Also see Francis X. Weiser,The Holyday Book (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company,
1956) 121-136.

[This article was originally published, in a different form, as "To Trace All Souls Day," in The Catholic Answer, vol. 8, no. 5
(November/December 1994): 8-11.]

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